Happenstance Viewspace

♣️She/Her. Mostly for BBC’s Merlin, Netflix’s The Old Guard, the adjacent Kenzarelli Multiverse and a barrage of other misc interests. Ask me about them! Header banner by @stop-all-the-clocks. I queue a lot and apparently do edits now #tpdledits

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Resources For Those Interested

Mainly for writing Yusef, but also because they’re interesting

Books: 

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes - Tamim Ansary

The Crusades Through Arab Eyes - Amin Maalouf

The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives - Carole Hillenbrand

The Race for Paradise: An Islamic History of the Crusades - Paul M. Cobb

A History of the Maghrib in the Islamic Period - Jamil M. Abun-Nasr

Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past - Firas Alkhateeb

Islam: History, Religion, and Politics Paperback – Tamara Sonn

Lost Islamic History: Reclaiming Muslim Civilisation from the Past - Firas Alkhateeb

Moorish Spain - Richard Fletcher

The Rebel and the Imām in Early Islam: Explorations in Muslim Historiography - Najam Haider

The Mercenary Mediterranean: Sovereignty, Religion, and Violence in the Medieval Crown of Aragon - Hussein Fancy

The Transmission of Knowledge in Medieval Cairo: A Social History of Islamic Education (Princeton Studies on the Near East)

Jewish Morocco: A History from Pre-Islamic to Postcolonial Times (Library of Middle East History)

An Apocalyptic History of the Early Fatimid Empire - Jamel Velji

The Almoravid and Almohad Empires - Amira K. Bennison

Islamic Imperialism: A History - Efraim Karsh

The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the ‘Abbasid Empire - Amira K. Bennison

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More Resources - Online/Free Options

Websites/downloadables:

The Crusades from the Perspective of Byzantium and the Muslim World, Angeliki E. Laiou, Roy Parviz Mottahedeh (click download to access full text)

The Islamic View and the Christian View of the Crusades: A New Synthesis

Revival: The Muslim Response to the Crusades

Islamic perspectives on the Crusades: Past and present

Understanding the Crusades from an Islamic perspective

Changing perspectives on the Crusades

Islamic Heritage Project, Harvard

Internet Islamic History Sourcebook

Yale University Library Near East Collection

Islamic and Middle East Studies - McGill

please reblog to signal boost! 

[pigsinablanketfort]

Reblogging again to get this going. I’m upset to report that the OP had to deactivate his account because of assholes who saw fit to bully and harass him as well as send him death threats. 🤬 they should be reported!

[otakunews01]

"Isekai Office Worker: The Other World's Books Depend on the Bean Counter (Isekai no Sata wa Shachiku Shida)" TV Anime event visual unveiled

Event Date: July 12

Once upon a time, in the not too distant past, a holy maiden was summoned. Not just any holy maiden—one hailing from modern Japan. But this story is not her story. This is the tale of the humble accountant, Kondou, who accompanied her and his trials and woes as he accounts in a new world... But no tale is complete without a love interest. And who better to play that role than the handsome knight captain Aresh? Will he begin a personal quest to save said bean counter—who toils around the clock—or is Kondou doomed to be married to his work evermore...?!

[thatpratdragonlady]

MARWAN KENZARI to star in Dutch psychological thriller series De Stilte

(t/n: De Stilte is translated as ‘The Silence’)

Source: @netflixnl IG post, 26th February 2026

(A/N: series summary is translated per caption)

The Silence, a new Dutch psychological thriller that makes you doubt everything you think you know. When Sara Post (Rianne van Rompaey) disappears without a trace, her husband (Marwan Kenzari) gets entangled in a dangerous search filled with hidden truths.

[houseofclamp]

[thesewersofparis]

[katherynefromphilly]

So this is the moment that Arthur chose Merlin over his father.  No, really.  I mean, I know Uther was all poltergeisty and tried to kill Gwen too, and Percival for that matter.  But it was Merlin who was about to get the business end of a sword.  And Arthur basically said: no.  No to the last vestige of his father, no to the hope of seeing him ever again, no to ever gaining his approval.  And yes to Merlin.  Even cutting off Uther in the middle of what he was saying.  Because Arthur was done, though it killed him.  And Merlin knew what Arthur was giving up in that moment.  He’s not crying for himself, he’s crying for Arthur.  For Arthur saving him.  For Arthur chosing him.

So yeah.  I like this moment.  This is a good moment.  And one of my favorite episodes of Series 5, for so, so many reasons.

[katherynefromphilly]

Just me reading one of my hot takes on BBC Merlin like a few years later and somehow evicerating myself with my own words.

[schweetheart]

@arsethur screaming over these tags kjdlfj;alskdjf;ls

[fallingskiesandrisingseas]

The Pevensie children are too old for their age.

Their mom notices, at the dinner table. She sees no nagging children, no stupid fights. She sees Lucy eating and speaking with perfect manners, Edmund analysing the economy and war with concerning skill, Susan being gracious but poised, like a diplomat.

Their father sees it in Peters eyes the first time they get into a fight. When he moves to punish Edmund for speaking out of turn, Peter calls him out on it. When his gaze meet his eldest son's, he's leveled by the war he sees behind it, the tensed muscle in his arm, the knuckles white around his knife. He's seen that before, in other soldiers. He doesn't know how to react.

Other children notice, too. Talking to all the Pevensie kids at the same time is like being the only one left out of a secret, and the way they touch and tease each other speaks of a history far deeper than their polite demeneor lets on. And when they walk they fall in line, as if there is a natural hierarchy between them.

The first time anyone picks a fight with Edmund, Peter comes home with a three week suspension and blood around his mouth. He looks more alive than you've seen him in weeks.

When Susan gets back in the pool after Narnia, she wins all the contests. Coaches can't explain how to beat her, because they don't understand how she's doing it, either. She seems to almost disappear when underwater.

Lucy, always gay and golden-haired, starts dancing, and never misses a step. She moves with an elegance that no 10 year old should have, and all the girls want to be friends with her

Edmund soon becomes the best student in his faculty. He always seems to know the right thing to say, and teachers laud his ability to think through complex problems. His mouth does get him in trouble sometimes, but the boy seems uncatchable, always talking his way through the cracks. And if not?

No one actively fears Peter, but everyone is a little scared of him sometimes. He's tall for his age, sure, but there is something else, some other air that seems to give him an authority far beyond what's normal for a teenage boy. He's nice enough, but teachers can't stand it, and bullies learn very quickly that pissing him off means missing teeth and black eyes.

The Pevensies are not quite inhuman, but not fully mortal, either

[thatpratdragonlady]

[FIRST LOOK]: Tatiana Maslany & Marwan Kenzari in Any Other Night

Source: Lucky Number website, 1 January 2026

One night in Berlin. Maggie and Sam are two strangers whose worlds collide as their lives are falling apart. She’s freshly dumped and in full emotional free fall. He’s a failed musician working as a cab driver and pretending it’s all part of his “creative process”. What should have been a five-minutes ride turns into a wild, chaotic odyssey through the city and through the wreckage of their own bad decisions. As the night unravels, so do their stories. The chemistry is obvious. The timing couldn’t be worse.

[jessehuang52]

bing bing~

[thebookluvrr1816]

Official Audio Commentary for 5x13 (Katie McGrath and Julian Murphy)

“I think you maybe just confirmed what a lot of people thought. And I’m glad that Julian could do it cause he’s probably the only one who could’ve gotten away with that commentary.”

For @merlin-pride-celebration

[thebookluvrr1816]

#the commentary on this episode really fucks me up#specifically ‘we did very genuinely think of it as a love story between two men’ and#‘the man he loves is dying so hes holding him’#like i will say it four billion times idc but. what a fucking tender thing to say. what a fucking simple way to put it#like its such an obvious. thing?#like ‘the man he loves is dying so he’s holding him’ it feels so. idk. it feels like that that one phrase is just the whole point#of everything#you hold the people you love#in their last moments you hold them so that the last thing they take with them from this life#is that they were loved#and its a comfort for arthur obviously#but for merlin too. because at least he got to hold arthur one last time#anyway i could scream about that one comment for ages#but another thing also made me emotional:#‘they did just spend the whole episode on this journey -’ ‘feeding each other?’#it reminds me of that one thing thats like 'i love you. i want us both to eat well’#anyway context wise the tone and stuff is completely different but thats just what i thoughtof#god this really hit the cOMMENTARY ALWAYS FUCKING HITS   @nextstopparis THE TAGS I’M HAVING A BREAKDOWN

[fan-a-tink]

all true, but can I add that Katie’s suggestion is freaking insane too?

“Merlin comes up and cradles him in his arms. I have magic. Arthur takes Merlin’s face in his hands. I know. I think I’ve always known.”

[inheritorofmemories-archive]

Biggest pet peeve in the tog fandom is people associating Booker with Paris. He’s from Marseille guys, he only went to the capital at the end of the movie to be as miserable as possible and feel sorry for himself and what is better for that than a city full of self-righteous assholes that smells like death? He’s from the south, trust me on this Paris is his number 1 enemy, he went there not because it’s a home for him or a good place he just wants to get drunk and think about how sad his life is. Once he decides to get better he’ll go drink pastis in the docks with the old fishermen and shopowners and get back into forging permits at the port. Stop putting the eiffel tower in your mood boards and edits and start adding le vieux port, the cathedral, lavender fields or even the coastlines, there are some pretty shores near Marseille. And if you want to go full aesthetic you have la Corniche and its war memorial that looks dope too.

He’s as much Mediterranean as Joe and Nicky are, they understand each other and their weird quirks better than Andy the Scythian will, or even Nile from Chicago. That’s why Booker has that gesture when he watches the game with Joe, it’s not that he spent too much time with Italian Nicky (I know he’s older than Italy, dw) it’s just the sea influences on the three of them.

[filmgifs]

LILO AND STITCH (2002) Dir. Chris Sanders & Dean DeBlois

[thatpratdragonlady]

COLIN MORGAN IS IN THE BONUS DEATH EPISODE OF THE SANDMAN??!?!!!!!!!!!

Source: @thesandmanofficial IG reel, 28th July 2025

[ahkaraii]

I missed doodling these guys... tog2 got me nostalgic

[hachinana87]

liar

[magickkart]

The sequel was a bit of a dumpster fire but ohhh godd im so back. Guys im so back im sorry im back. Im IN IT im ON IT im shaking crying etc.

[olderthannetfic]

Ok we've all seen Kpop demon hunters, blah blah

Why are there so many stupid people trying to frame the idol (SOUTH KOREAN) industry from a Western, US-centric, viewpoint?

Fucking ice cold take I saw: "Baby Saja represents the infantilization and emasculating of Asian men by Western fans." smth like that.

Are you dumb, like really?

You have an entire fucking fictional boy band group based on the most stereotypical East Asian South Korean Boy band tropes, and ignore that these are direct reflections of the idol industry, and go "Ok, but this one is actually specifically just about the Westerners woobifying of Asian men."

Have you fucking looked at the idol industry? Have you fucking noticed how "Home land" centric those are? Have you fucking seen how intensely South Korean centric SK idol groups are??????? What about the rest of them???? So it's just that dude??? You determined that how? The Baby guy is the Wester view, but all the others are SK views on male idol groups???? Literally each of them is a reflection of a specific SK trope, and that includes the "Super sweet "baby" of the group" trope.

It's not even that I couldn't agree with the fact that Western fans show similar objectifying views on Idol groups. It's just that ice cold take that it's "only" Western fans, rather than a parody of general SK objectifying approach to Idols and who they're allowed to be. If you at least took the approach of talking the entire line up and reflecting on them from a Western AND South Korean point of view. But nope, "Let's forget the rest of the world exists." Especially because this again falls into the trap of erasing cultures in favor of applying it all to the West.

--

ETA: Hah! This posted while I was finally watching it.

OH MY GOD is it an accurate parody of kpop fandom and idol groups.

[koffeinkaos]

If Merlin would have come back one night from another magical quest to keep Arthur safe and he would have headed towards his kings chambers instead of Gaius rooms, it would have been the perfect situation for a magic reveal.

Merlin being exhausted and tired and just desperate for some comfort even if he didn't dare to ask for a hug he would have just soaked up Arthur's presence and Arthur after wondering the entire day where the hell Merlin had disappeared to again was worried out of his mind. The concern wouldn't go away even when the servant returned. He had noticed the change in Merlin’s bahaviour for some time now. He rarely prattled, his smiles were half hearted at best and he always seemed to brood.

That night he decided he couldn't watch it any longer, clearly Merlin was troubled and Arthur was the king. There was a good change he could help.

But Merlin didn't make it easy, trying to switch topic or sidestepping questions, claiming he was only tired.

Arthur didn't believe him and their conversation became an argument.

The king was determined to get to the bottom of this but stopped when he noticed Merlin was shaking. He couldn't see his face, as he had turned to poke at the fire angrily once Arthur accused him of lying. But now it was silent he heard a sniffle.

"Merlin?" he kept his voice soft.

He got no answer so he approached carefully. When he was close enough he put a hand on Merlin’s back. The shaking hadn't stopped, if anything it had gotten worse.

"Tell me what's going on please." Arthur rarely asked like this but Merlin shook his head.

"Can't" He answered in a strangled voice.

Somehow Arthur could feel this was an important moment, a defining moment. If he would let go now they would continue drifting apart and he couldn't risk it. So he pressed on, prodded until Merlin was at a breaking point. It hurt him to see his servant, his friend in such distress but something told him they needed to talk about this. Properly.

Seeing there was no way out, Merlin broke down confessing his magic while tears ran down his cheeks.

Arthur was shocked, his first reaction was getting angry but Merlin flinched hard when he snapped and all the rage turned into shame at once. His heart wasn't in it anyway. His heart was screaming to hold Merlin close, to reassure him nothing would happen to him. To make him understand that Arthur would have walked into fire himself before he would ever lay a hand on Merlin. And that's what he did.